Police Armed With Fines For False Alarms

May 02, 1991|By Colin McMahon.

It`s 9 o`clock on a Wednesday night and the burglar alarm goes off at an office building in Mt. Prospect.

The police are notified, either electronically or by a security company. And, even if they have no doubt that it`s a false alarm, the officers respond. This situation plays out at least once nearly every night not only in Mt. Prospect but in suburbs across the metropolitan area.

In fact, statistics show, if police have to respond to only one false alarm, it`s considered a banner day.

Although the figures vary slightly from suburb to suburb, at most only 1 in every 200 alarm calls to police is valid, officials say. In Wheeling, for example, police last year recorded 2,323 alarm calls. Only 13 were warranted. The rest were false alarms caused in any number of ways, from alarm owners` errors to power failures to thunderstorms.

As the cost of burglar alarm systems drops and more citizens and businesses begin installing them, authorities are taking steps to curb the number of false alarms.

Buffalo Grove, for example, recently raised to $50 the fine that can be assessed a homeowner or a business when police respond to a false alarm. And most police departments in the region offer guidance on how alarm owners can avoid false calls.

Those measures appear to be paying off in communities like Mt. Prospect, where the number of burglar systems installed is growing by about 10 percent a year but the number of false alarms is stable, according to Officer William Roscop.

The effort to reduce false alarms is important for several reasons, police say.

For another, false calls take officers away from other duties that may benefit the community.

And there`s a risk factor at work, too, any time an officer is dispatched on a burglary call, said Sgt. Edmond Doone of Schaumburg.

``We`re concerned about the safety aspect when our personnel respond to an alarm,`` Doone said. ``It`s a hazard to our personnel as well as the people on the street.``

Despite the frustrations, the costs and even the increased risks, officials accept false alarms as a fact of police life and look past them to note the positive aspects of warning systems.

``We see the alarm as a crime-prevention tool,`` said Palatine Deputy Chief Walter Gasior, whose department recorded 2,058 false alarms in 1990.

After an apartment complex in the village installed burglar alarms in every unit last year, false calls to police increased dramatically, Gasior said. But, he added, ``The positive sign is that the burglary rate there has dropped significantly.``

``There`s a certain amount of deterrence in having an alarm,`` Doone said. ``It helps cut down on burglaries.``

Lt. Ronald Diehl of Des Plaines agrees with that view. But he said he wishes his city followed the course of most other communities in the region in punishing repeat false-call offenders.

``It`s great to have the alarms on the buildings,`` Diehl said. ``But if it`s a repeated abuse of the system, there should be a fine.``

Des Plaines police last year responded to a whopping 3,637 false alarms, an average of almost 10 a day, according to Diehl.

Whether that number can be attributed more to Des Plaines` abundance of factories and commercial buildings or its lack of a fine system is impossible to say. What`s certain is that communities that do have fines are bringing in substantial sums of money each year, even if officials say that`s not the aim of the programs.

Schaumburg last year fined 1,263 alarm subscribers a total of $82,600, Doone said, with about 90 percent of that total coming from businesses.

Depending on the suburb, fines for false alarms can run from $25 to as high as $150. And every alarm system subscriber is allowed at least a couple of slipups.

In Mt. Prospect, burglar systems must first be registered with the village, for a small fee. Then, after a certain grace period, false alarms can carry a fine of $25 to $50.

Palatine allows three false alarms every six months. Schaumburg forgives only two a year, and its fines can run up to $150.

Police throughout the area will not charge for a false alarm caused by a storm (lightning or a loud thunder clap can trigger a device), or by a power failure. But if a careless family member or employee sets off the system, police can deliver a bill.

``This is not a revenue-generating program,`` said Roscop of Mt. Prospect. ``We`re just trying to push alarm-holders into maintaining their systems and educating the people who use them.

``A lot of times, if someone can pinpoint and resolve a problem setting off an alarm, we won`t charge them. We`re just asking people to try to be a little bit more careful,`` he said.

Roscop said there are instances when officers are sure, because of the time and place of an alarm, that it`s false. They might know, for example, that a cleaning crew has just entered an office building and accidentally set off the system. Still, duty calls.